


Bottled Up

by TheLonelyJournalKeeper



Series: Her Family [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Conversations, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Cynicism, Drabble, Emotional Hurt, Emotionally Repressed, Friendship, Gen, IPRE Era, Idealism, Male-Female Friendship, Present Tense, Prompt Fill, Short One Shot, Team as Family, Tumblr Prompt, Wistful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 20:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11320776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLonelyJournalKeeper/pseuds/TheLonelyJournalKeeper
Summary: Her thoughts are very much elsewhere as she stares out from the deck of the Starblaster, a frown starting to crease her brow unbeknownst to her.“Y’know, you’re too young to hate the world,” a voice comments apropos of nothing. She startles and her head whips around to stare at the intruder.





	Bottled Up

It’s twilight. The sunsets are spectacular in this dimension despite there being only sun, but Lucretia is in no mood to appreciate the way the entire sky is shot through with purple and gold, like the cloak of a monarch. Her thoughts are very much elsewhere as she stares out from the deck of the Starblaster, a frown starting to crease her brow unbeknownst to her.

“Y’know, you’re too young to hate the world,” a voice comments apropos of nothing. She startles and her head whips around to stare at the intruder.

It’s Taako which doesn’t really explain anything except how bizarre his comment is. She doesn’t know what he’s doing here. She thought he was still below deck with the others.

“Um, what?” she says.

“I said, ‘you’re too young to hate the world,’’” Taako repeats.

She almost laughs. That’s what she’d thought he’d said and it’s ridiculous for so many reasons.

“Taako, I’m—“she stops to add up all the years in her head—“nearly ninety by now.” Wow, that sounds just awful, said aloud, but the math checks out. 

“See?” Taako says, like she’s proven his point. “You’re not even one hundred yet.” 

“Humans come of age at eighteen,” she reminds him. “And besides, I don’t hate the world. What are you talking about?”

“You don’t? Why else would you be sitting here scowling at the sunset then, hm? Okay, maybe I’m not the most observant dude out there, but I can’t help noticing you’ve spent a lot of time either throwing yourself headfirst into battle or hidden away, scowling at something I sure as hell can’t see lately. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s great that you’ve been helping out in fights and stuff, but what happened to the lady who excited about discovering new plants and stuff?” 

“She died. A few cycles ago,” Lucretia says wearily. 

“Well, that’s fucking great.” 

Lucretia shakes her head. “Never mind. That sounded much…more morose than I intended it to. I’m fine. I’m just tired.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” she says. “It’s just that we’ve been doing this for a long time and recently I’ve been wondering if it’s ever going to end. Without all of us dying, that is. We’ve had some…some pretty close calls.”

“Are we ever gonna beat the Hunger, you mean?”

She nods. “Yes. I think it would be nice to just live—live a life, somewhere, without having to get ready to leave after a year.”

“Huh, that’s the dream, sister,” he says. “Someday.”

“Someday,” she repeats.

There’s silence for a beat. “But you don’t hate the world, right?”

“No. No, I don’t,” she says. She means it, and she meant it too when she said she was tired. She is tired in her very soul, but she is far from giving up yet. She knows there is still much to do and she’s more determined than ever to do it so that one day, there will be a place the seven of them won’t have to run from.

She thinks this realization is crucial in remedying the two halves of the person she has become. The her now—weary but determined and much wiser than she had been—and the her she once was—young and idealistic enough to keep her from hating the world.

“Well, that’s good. I don’t think I could handle any more cynics on board,” Taako says.

“Merle isn’t really cynical,” Lucretia says thoughtfully. “Or more like, he’s so cynical he’s looped back around to being idealistic again.”

“I wasn’t talking about Merle. I was talking about me! I’m all the cynic we need on this ship.”

“Oh,” Lucretia says. “Taako, if you don’t mind me asking, why do you care? Checking up on the other members of the crew isn’t really your style.”

“Well, you and me are obviously very different people,” Taako begins. 

Lucretia can’t disagree with that assessment.

“But we do have one thing in common. Care to guess what that one thing is?”

She shakes her head.

“We’re both _very_ good at bottling all of that emotional shit up,” he says.

Lucretia can’t help but laugh at that, just once. “Well, I suppose that’s true.”

“Anyway, I could tell by all the staring off into the sunset that you were bottling something up, and you did save our asses a few cycles back so I figured the least I could do was lend an ear.”

Lucretia smiles. “I’ve saved your ass more than a few times since then too, Taako.”

“Touché.” He grins. “You wanna come back below deck and join the party now?”

She stands. “What are we celebrating exactly?”

“Y’know, I’m not exactly sure. I think it was Magnus’ idea. Or Lup’s. So I’m sure they found something worth celebrating,” he laughs.

“Hm, I think I wouldn’t be adverse to a bit of celebration just now,” she says and follows Taako below deck where she can hear the sounds of her companions shouting and laughing. She doesn’t know what they’re so excited about, but she wants to find out. 


End file.
